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Apple rebuilds Siri on Google's Gemini after two-year delay

Apple rebuilds Siri on Google's Gemini after two-year delay

New Capabilities

Apple showed the rebuilt Siri at WWDC 2026 and shipped it in beta in September, running on Apple Foundation Models built with Google's Gemini

Overview

Updated Oct 23

Apple promised a smarter Siri in June 2024 and shipped it, in beta, on September 15, 2026. The assistant runs on Apple Foundation Models that Apple built with Google's Gemini, under a licensing deal the two companies reached in January 2026.

The release is partial. Siri AI started in English only, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish due in October, and Apple held it out of the European Union and China. The Wall Street Journal's review said Siri now works like ChatGPT or Claude but that Apple still trails in the AI race.

Why it matters

The voice assistant on more than a billion iPhones now thinks with Google's AI, ending Apple's bid to build that intelligence itself.

Questions about this story

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What model is it closest to in intelligence? Pro, flash, Gemma 31?

Apple's custom Siri model is firmly in frontier Pro territory — far above Flash and roughly 40x larger than Gemma's biggest model.

The gap matters because Flash and Gemma trade raw intelligence for speed or openness; Apple paid ~$1B/year specifically to avoid that compromise.

4 details3 sources1 disagreement
  • The custom model has 1.2 trillion total parameters using a mixture-of-experts (MoE) architecture — only a relevant subset fires per query, but total capacity dwarfs any Flash or Gemma variant.
  • Gemma 4's largest open model tops out at ~27–31B parameters; Gemini Flash is optimized for speed and cost, not maximum reasoning — the 1.2T custom model is in a different class from either.
  • Gemini 3.1 Pro currently leads Google's public lineup on hard benchmarks (94.3% GPQA Diamond, 80.6% SWE-bench Verified); the Apple model's scale suggests it sits at Pro level or above — possibly matching an unreleased Ultra-class variant.
  • Google has not disclosed the active parameter count per query for the custom model, so a precise 'Pro vs. Ultra' ranking is genuinely uncertain — but Flash and Gemma are ruled out by the numbers alone.
Room for disagreement
  • Google hasn't released benchmark data for the custom Apple model specifically, so some analysts argue it could be a stripped-down frontier model tuned for assistant tasks rather than a true Pro-class reasoner — meaning real-world intelligence could land closer to a high-end Flash than a full Pro.
1 AI answers with web search. May be wrong.

What is apple running the model on? M5 chips?

The heavy Gemini model runs in Google's cloud on Nvidia GPUs — not on Apple silicon — but simpler Siri requests stay on-device using the Neural Engine in M5 (Mac) and A-series (iPhone) chips.

Apple's privacy pitch depends on keeping as much as possible on-device; only the queries too complex for local hardware get routed to Google's infrastructure.

4 details3 sources1 disagreement
  • Apple built a three-tier routing system: simple tasks (timers, music) stay fully on-device via the Neural Engine; mid-tier queries go to Apple's Private Cloud Compute servers; the heaviest reasoning routes to Google Cloud, which runs Nvidia Blackwell B200 GPUs.
  • The 1.2-trillion-parameter custom Gemini model lives in Google's cloud — far too large to run locally on any current Apple chip.
  • M5 (Mac) and A18 (iPhone 16) Neural Engines handle roughly 70% of routine queries without leaving the device, keeping latency low and data local.
  • Apple anonymizes and tokenizes queries at each routing step so neither Apple nor Google can tie requests to individual users.
Room for disagreement
  • Some outlets frame this as 'Apple outsourcing AI to Google,' implying on-device processing is marginal; Apple and sympathetic analysts argue the routing architecture means most queries never reach Google — the disagreement is really about what percentage of real-world usage hits the cloud tier.
0 AI answers with web search. May be wrong.

Key Indicators

$1B/yr
Paid to Google
Estimated annual cost of the multi-year Gemini licensing deal.
1.2T
Model parameters
Reported size of the custom Gemini model built for Siri.
27 months
Promise to beta
Time between the June 2024 announcement and the September 15, 2026 beta release.
5
Languages next
French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, which Apple said would follow the English beta.

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People Involved

Organizations Involved

Timeline

June 2024 September 2026

7 events Latest: September 15th, 2026 · 2 months ago
Tap a bar to jump to that date
  1. Siri AI ships in beta

    Latest Launch

    Apple releases the rebuilt assistant with iOS 27 and the other version 27 updates. The beta is English only and skips the European Union and China; Apple says five more languages follow in October.

  2. John Ternus becomes Apple CEO

    Personnel

    Ternus, previously Apple's hardware engineering chief, succeeds Tim Cook, who ran the company from 2011.

  3. Rebuilt Siri unveiled at WWDC 2026

    Launch

    Apple shows a chatbot-style Siri powered by Gemini, plus iOS 27 and matching updates across its other operating systems. It is Tim Cook's final WWDC keynote as CEO.

  4. Apple signs Gemini deal with Google

    Deal

    Apple agrees to license a custom 1.2-trillion-parameter Gemini model for roughly $1 billion a year, choosing Google over OpenAI and Anthropic.

  5. Leadership shake-up at Apple AI

    Personnel

    Apple moves Siri to Mike Rockwell after Tim Cook reportedly loses confidence in AI chief John Giannandrea.

  6. Apple delays the personalized Siri

    Setback

    Apple confirms the deeper, context-aware Siri features will slip well past their promised window.

  7. Apple promises a smarter Siri

    Announcement

    At WWDC 2024, Apple unveils Apple Intelligence and a Siri that understands context across apps. Key features are not ready at launch.

Scenarios

1

Gemini-powered Siri ships to the public this fall

Likely Resolves by Oct 31, 2026

Discussed by: MacRumors, CNBC

Apple completes the rollout on schedule. The rebuilt Siri reaches all users with the general release of iOS 27 in September 2026, matching the timeline Apple set at WWDC.

2

Regulators open an antitrust probe into the Apple-Google AI deal

Possible Resolves by Jun 8, 2027

Discussed by: The Antitrust Attorney Blog, Security Boulevard

Lawyers have flagged the arrangement as a possible antitrust target, comparing it to past cases against Microsoft. A competition authority in the US or Europe opens a formal review of whether two dominant firms paying each other entrenches their power.

3

Apple drops Gemini and switches its AI supplier

Unlikely Resolves by Jun 8, 2028

Discussed by: Tech industry analysts tracking the multi-year contract

The partnership sours over cost, performance or independence. Apple announces it will move Siri off Gemini, either back to its own foundation models or to another provider such as OpenAI or Anthropic.

4

Siri AI reaches the European Union or China

Possible Resolves by Q3 2027

Discussed by: 9to5Mac, PPC Land

Apple shipped Siri AI in English outside the European Union and China. A launch in either market would close the biggest remaining gap in the rollout, and 9to5Mac has reported a continuing dispute between Apple and European officials over the delay.

Historical Context

2 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

September 2012

Apple Maps launch (2012)

Apple dropped Google Maps and shipped its own mapping app with iOS 6. The data was wrong in ways users noticed immediately: misplaced towns, melted-looking bridges, bad directions. CEO Tim Cook issued a rare public apology.

Then

The head of iOS software, Scott Forstall, left Apple within months. Apple briefly recommended rival map apps.

Now

Apple spent years and large sums rebuilding Maps until it became reliable, proving it could recover from a botched in-house service.

Why this matters now

Siri is the second time Apple tried to replace outside technology with its own and stumbled in public. The difference: this time Apple bought the fix from Google instead of grinding it out alone.

May 1998 to 2001

Microsoft's antitrust case over bundling (1998-2001)

The US Department of Justice sued Microsoft for using its Windows monopoly to favor its own browser. A judge first ordered the company split in two before an appeals court reversed the breakup.

Then

Microsoft faced years of legal supervision and settled with the government.

Now

The case set the modern template for how courts judge dominant tech firms that leverage one product to control another.

Why this matters now

Antitrust lawyers point to this case, not the App Store fights, as the closest parallel for two giants paying each other to share the AI market.

Sources

(15)